I think the near future will not change much.
THe only thing (in the US) that has really changed a lot in the past 30 years has been computers and media. however other than this there has not been many great inovations.
Take alternative energy sources. Nuclear and hydro are good efficient sources, but most of the US is still fueled by Coal gas and oil, (partialy because people are scared of Nuclear.) Yes, now hybrid cars are comming to market, despite the fact that people have wanted Gas alternatives since the Oil embargo of the 70's. And Fuel efficiency of cars is way bellow what they should be, I had a car back in 85 that got over 20 miles per gallon, and my current car new only got 30 mpg that is not a big difference for 20 years of advancements.
If we look at how people visioned the future from years past, we will see that many of there forcasts are slow to come about. take 2001 Space odessy or a better example 1984. when these were created people actually expected things in those storys to actually be plausable. and in some cases the fantasy has been becomming reality on the technology side(Communicaiton), but other than communication Society is resistant to Change.
I would say, that the typical person from the 1950's would have invisioned our current world to be filled with fantastic Transit devices. things like moving sidwalks, Flying machines. cars driving themselves. Monorails and trasit tubes run by phumantics. but what do we have today. Very little public transit eccept for Large Urban centers. when society should have moved twords Great Public transit it has moved to most families having more cars than members.
Overall, I would say inovation should slow down in the next decade. I think Societies Future is Bleak. mostly due to societly no longer appriciating Imagination and/or accomplishment. a good example of this: Did anyone else notice that Anna Nicole Death is recieving more coverage than Presedent Ford, Joe Barbera and James Brown combined?
Sorry for the rant, it is a topic that I am passionate about, but have diffuculty expressing my opinions. ALso Please forgive the spelling.
Monty
